Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - Team UK's dominant display in the Challenger Series has made America's Cup defender Team New Zealand sit up and take notice.

The Ben Ainslie skippered boat, registered five victories from five starts to storm into the final of the Challenger Series, with the winner set to take on Team New Zealand in a series of head-to-head races from March 6 for the America's Cup.

"Certainly, as the defender, we are seriously taking notice," Team NZ chief executive Dalton told the Times. "There's no doubt they are sailing brilliantly, they are absolutely pin-point perfect and they are not making mistakes on a shifty course.

"They are used to sailing boat-on-boat and they are used to sailing close (to their opponent), as our guys are."

In terms of weaknesses, Dalton said the British do not seem to have resolved their issues with performance in light winds.

"They are sailing a good boat exceptionally well, not a great boat OK," he said. "They will be concerned at their light-air performance and working towards how to fix that, although I'm not 100% sure how they will do that."

-Reuters

Spurs leave it late

Tottenham Hotspur left in late to move through to the fifth round of English football's FA Cup.

Wycombe Wanderers, bottom of the Championship, had stunned their Premier League opponents with the opening goal in the 25th minute.

The visitors didn't take the lead until four minutes from time and then added another two before the final whistle.

Spurs will meet Everton in the fifth round.

PGA Championship moved to Oklahoma

The 2022 PGA Championship, which until two weeks ago was due to be played at a Donald Trump-owned course in New Jersey, will now he held at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The event needed a new home after the PGA of America decided to move it from Trump National Golf Club after Trump exhorted thousands of his supporters to march on the Capitol as Congress met to certify his presidential election defeat by Joe Biden.

Southern Hills has previously hosted seven men's major championships but none since the 2007 PGA Championship that was won by Tiger Woods.

-Reuters

Win and loss for Wellington cricketers

Wellington stay top of the standings in both the men's and women's T20 Super Smash competition but they had contrasting fortunes against Canterbury at the Basin Reserve.

Ben Sears took three wickets, while Tom Blundell made an unbeaten 67 as the Wellington men beat Canterbury by seven wickets with two balls to spare.

However the Wellington women suffered just their second loss of the season, going down to Canterbury by nine wickets.

Wellington have an eight point lead over Central Districts in the men's standings, while Wellington are two points ahead of Canterbury in the women's standings.

Another win for England cricketers

The England cricketers have swept their test series against Sri lanka after winning the second test in Galle by Six wickets.

Dom Sibley scored an unbeaten half century as England chased down a target of 164.

The tourists overturned a 37-run deficit after the first innings to win a sixth successive test in Sri Lanka, after earlier dismissing Sri Lanka for 126 in their second innings, giving themselves a confidence boost ahead of next month's start of a four-test series in India.

England won last week's first test by seven wickets in a victorious start to a year in which they will play 17 test matches.

That includes two home tests against New Zealand in June at Lord's and Edgbaston.

-Reuters

Wolff had Covid

Mercedes Formula One team boss and co-owner Toto Wolff has revealed he tested positive for Covid-19 and had to isolate in Austria this month but is now out of quarantine.

Five Formula One drivers, including Mercedes' seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, have had the new coronavirus. So too have Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll and Williams principal Simon Roberts.

Wolff owns one third of the Mercedes team as an equal partner with petrochemicals form Ineos and parent company Daimler AG.

The Austrian's current focus is on agreeing a new deal with Hamilton, who has been out of contract since the end of last year and celebrated his 36th birthday this month.

Wolff said the lawyers were hard at work, with a deal needing to be in place before pre-season testing in Bahrain in March.

-Reuters

Bouncers should be banned in junior cricket

Cricket authorities should consider banning bouncers in the junior game to limit the risk of concussion, Michael Turner, a head injury specialist, told The Telegraph.

Cricket's lawmakers, the MCC, have begun a consultation process to discuss whether changes are needed for the short ball or bouncer, which rears up from the pitch towards the batsman's head.

Discussions on player safety gathered steam after former Australia batsman Phillip Hughes died in 2014 having been hit on the head by a bouncer.

"You want to avoid concussing the adolescent brain while it's still evolving," Turner, medical director of the International Concussion and Head Injury Research Foundation, told the newspaper.

"If stopping concussion means changing the rules to ensure that there are no short deliveries in junior cricket, this should be a serious consideration.

There have been growing calls for the issue of head injuries in sport to be given further attention.

A group of former rugby players suffering from concussion-related health problems have said their issues were caused by negligence over head injuries.

-Reuters